Research shows that cold weather does not cause the common cold or flu, but being cold can weaken the body’s immune system, making it more susceptible to viruses. Increased contact with others in enclosed spaces during the winter season is the most likely cause of catching a cold, and the best prevention is to avoid crowded places and wash hands frequently. A positive attitude may also help reduce the risk of catching a cold.
“If you don’t finish, you’ll catch yourself dying of a cold.” Many of us have heard similar advice about the connection between being cold and getting sick. Although most of us believe that cold weather doesn’t cause disease, the jury is officially still out. Most research claims that a cold does not affect the likelihood of contracting a virus that causes the common cold or the flu.
Medical research in the 1950s exposed 400 volunteers to cold viruses using various temperatures and conditions as variables. The result was no difference in the infection rate between the different groups. A similar study in the late 1960s yielded comparable results.
However, some studies suggest that colds cause illness. Some arguments suggest that if you are cold, your body is more stressed and therefore less resistant to fighting a virus. Research from Cardiff University’s Common Cold Center in Wales has shown that a drop in body temperature can cause a dormant cold virus to develop. If a person gets a cold, such as by wearing damp clothes in cold weather, the blood vessels in the nose constrict. When this occurs, the warm blood is shut off and no longer supplies the infection-fighting white blood cells.
One study involved the effects of volunteers placing their bare feet in an empty bowl for 20 minutes or dipping their feet in a bowl containing ice water for the same amount of time. Within five days of the experiment, more participants who had dipped their feet in cold water developed cold symptoms than other participants. According to the study, many of those participants most likely already had the cold virus but were not yet showing symptoms. Lower body temperature was a contributing factor; in this case the cold caused the disease, not the virus, but the development of the virus.
The most likely reason people tend to get sick more often in the winter season is increased internal contact with others, some of whom have viruses. Because the weather is cold, people tend to stay indoors more often, making places like schools, shops, airports, and offices likely places to catch a cold.
People usually catch a cold through airborne droplets from a sneeze. Other methods of catching a cold are touching from the hand to the nose or eye area after direct contact with a person who has the virus or indirect contact, such as touching the doorknob itself.
The best way to avoid a cold or a virus is not avoiding the cold, but avoiding crowded places and washing your hands often. Findings from another study indicate that those who have a positive attitude and are optimistic are less likely to catch a cold than those who had a more negative emotional style.
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